Louis Braille (1809-1852)
Jan 4 French educator and inventor of a system of reading and writing for the blind, born in Coupvray, France
- Jan 15 Cornelia Connelly, American foundress (Society of the Holy Child Jesus), born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (d. 1879)
- Jan 15 Pierre Joseph Proudhon, French politician & philosopher ("father of anarchism"), born in Besançon, France (d. 1865)
- Jan 18 Richard C. Gatlin, American Brigadier General (Confederate Army), born in Kinston, North Carolina (d. 1896)
Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849)
Jan 19 American writer, poet and critic (The Pit and the Pendulum) considered the inventor of the detective fiction genre (Murders in the Rue Morgue), born in Boston, Massachusetts
